“What Most Schools Don’t Teach” – A video on the importance of educating kids about software and engineering was recently released by Code.org, a non-profit organization tasked with growing the educational options and opportunities for computer programming. They have some heavy-hitters on their advisory board and offer an assortment of programming tutorials for students and curriculum assistance for educators.

The video is very well done and is filled with successful entrepreneurs and “celebrity nerds” like Zuckerberg, Gates, and even NBA star Chris Bosh.
I was fortunate to have computer programming education introduced to me at an early age both through school and home, and the problem solving skills that I’ve learned through engineering and programming have helped me throughout my life. Learning to break down complex problems into smaller, manageable pieces is a skill that everyone needs. It is always surprising to me how few people really understand how software is created or what programmers do – especially with so many talking “tech” and knowing all the top apps and comparing gadgets. We should be doing more to build our base of software programmers and engineers through early education.

The video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU1xS07N-FA&w=500&rel=0]

Many of our employees have previously volunteered and currently participate with local robotics groups through organizations such as VEX and BEST. (full disclosure – our favorite is clearly the DiscoBots) Giving students the chance to work on complex problems as a group builds a wide range of skills and experience, which will clearly benefit them in all other aspects of education. Looking back, I wish I could have had access to more hands-on opportunities with groups like these.

Dheadley

Related Post

Every year, I try to volunteer at the VEX Robotics World Championship. This year I volunteered as a Field Technician. When the field or robots have trouble connecting or technical issues, I was there toRead more

Every 1st week of January, the new FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) game is unveiled. From the moment the game is released, teams have approximately 6 weeks to design, build and test a robot. After thoseRead more

Here at Sparx Engineering, we utilize a variety of fabrication techniques to take conceptual ideas and create actual working prototypes. The ability to quickly and readily fabricate functional proofs is vital in our work. ItRead more

Like many beginning Clojure programmers, I started off following Stuart Sierra’s “Reloaded” workflow guide. While it was a great starting point, there were a number of things that I wanted to change. If the projectRead more

Other than years of experience, a polished resume, and the ability to design circuits on a white board with 3 hiring managers looking over your shoulder, what can an electrical engineer do to stack theRead more